InfoSecurity 2002 – a reporters journal

InfoSecurity 2002 was small, as expected, but filled with spots of energy at vendor’s booths sprinkled throughout the show floor.
Some of the hi-lights of InfoSecurity’s trade show include Securit-e-Doc’s innovative solution that enables anyone with access to a web browser to securely send (via email) and store documents.
The browser based solution, requires no client installed software. Once users log on to the Securit-e-Doc solution they can send their documents, in an encrypted format to any one else. First the document is sent to the company server, (where the Securit-e-Doc application resides). Securit-e-Doc then notifies the intended recipient that a file is waiting for them and provides a URL to download the file from. Before the recipient downloads the file, it is then encrypted.
A Trend Micro rep stopped me as I was walking by their booth (after I was finished stopping by Symantec’s booth and explained to me that the difference between Trend Micro’s solution and that of other vendors is that a) they focus on server based anti-virus solutions b) instead of just scanning for and eliminating the a virus, Trend Micro manages the entire virus outbreak life cycle – from preventing the virus in the first place, to assessment and cleanup, to restoration and post mortem.
There were several companies exhibiting their application security solutions, including SPI Dynamics. I reported about the security seminar I went to in my article “The Mind of a Hacker” that SPI Dynamics hosted a few weeks ago.
Some other themes exhibited were email security products, spam and content filtering (into and out of a company), in addition to anti-virus solutions from Panda and Symantec. Of course there were several resellers and consultants present also.Manhattan Chamber of Commerce was also at InfoSecurity 2002. In fact, I was scheduled to moderate an information security seminar, produced by MCC, scheduled for today, that was postponed.
Computer Associates had a Hudini like guy as a “crowd drawer”
Finally, as I was typing this up in the press room, one of the InfoSecurity 2002 staff asked her colleauge “what’s the password” to log into their email system. Then she preceded to repeat the user name! Shocking at an information security conference!!!!